Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative Online Course(s) & Continuing Education

Fiona Dykes is Professor of Maternal and Infant Health and leads Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Group (MAINN), at University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. Fiona has a particular upon the global, socio-cultural and political influences upon infant and young child feeding practices; her methodological expertise is in ethnography and other qualitative research methods. Fiona is the Conference Convenor and Chair of the Scientific Review Committee for the MAINN Conference, a three day, international, peer reviewed event established in 2007 and held bi-annually in the UK and, more recently, on alternate years overseas (Sydney, Australia, Sweden and Florida). She is a member of the editorial board for Maternal and Child Nutrition. Fiona is author of Breastfeeding in Hospital: Mothers, Midwives and the Production Line (Routledge) and co-author, with Dr Tanya Cassidy of Banking on Milk: An ethnography of donor human milk relations (Routledge). She is also joint editor of several books including Infant and Young Child Feeding: Challenges to implementing a Global Strategy (Wiley-Blackwell) and Ethnographic Research in Maternal and Child Health (Routledge).

Marcda Hilaire immigrated from Haiti to the United States in 1995. At a very young age, she served as a trainee in the biomedical program now known as the STEM PREP program. She received a Bachelor’s in Biology from Temple University and a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Maternal & Child Health from University of South Florida. Having worked in breastfeeding since 2012, Ms. Hilaire recently earned her IBCLC in June 2017. Ms. Hilaire currently serves as a breastfeeding coordinator in Palm Beach County, is a member of the Palm Beach County Breastfeeding Coalition and corresponding secretary for the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition. She serves as a member of the Health Ministry at Philadelphia Church of the Newborns. Ms. Hilaire and her husband have two children, one of whom is a currently breastfeeding 9 month old. She enjoys poetry, singing, and writing.

Andini has bachelor and master degree in public health, majoring in hospital administration. She is an IBCLC and is currently undertaking PhD at the Australian National University. Her PhD thesis is looking at the facilitator and barrier of Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative implementation and accreditation in Indonesia and Australia. One part of her PhD was measuring its social value using Social Return on Investment.

Her journey began when she was pregnant with her first child, then found and attended full series of Indonesian Breastfeeding Mothers Association (AIMI)'s breastfeeding classes. She then decided to volunteered as breastfeeding counselor at AIMI.

With her work experience in hospital management consulting for 8 years and personal experience when her breastfed son undertook open heart surgery, she realized that not every hospitals provide adequate education and support for breastfeeding mother, either since pregnancy, during and after birth.

Andini was awarded Deeble Summer Research Scholarship from Deeble Institute for Health Policy Research Scholarship Program of Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) in 2020 and published a Health Policy Issues Brief titled "Improving the Uptake of the Baby Friendly Health Initiative in Australian Hospitals" as the outcome. Thanks to her supervisor, Andini involved in working group for Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace Accreditation at ANU in 2018-2019 and involve in WBTi Australia since 2019. Currently living in Canberra Australia, Andini has been providing breastfeeding education and assistance for Indonesian mother-student, students' wives or any Indonesian women who live in Canberra.